KINGSTON, Jamaica The lushly forested nation of Guyana has joined a regional pact to protect jaguars, the elusive spotted cat that is the biggest land predator in the Americas but is vulnerable to expanded agriculture and mining that carves away at their fragmented habitat.

Conservationists must protect tiger populations in a few concentrated breeding grounds in Asia instead of trying to safeguard vast, surrounding landscapes, if they want to save the big cats from extinction, scientists said.